As the Haj season begins,the Civil Aviation Ministry has approached the Home Ministry to allow a Saudi-Arabian airline to fly pilgrims from Kashmir. Foreign airlines are not allowed to operate out of the Indian Air Force-run Srinagar International Airport,from where Haj flights will start departing from October 17. We have requested the Home Ministry to give permission to (the Saudi airliner) NAS Air to carry passengers from Srinagar to Delhi, said a Civil Aviation Ministry official. If granted permission,the airline would fly 8,000 pilgrims from the Valley to Delhi and then to Jeddah. Its crew,however,would not be allowed to disembark at the Srinagar airport. Barring Srinagar and Patna,which have hub and spoke flights,all the other 19 embarkation points will have direct flights to Saudi. Pilgrims from Patna and Srinagar will be brought to Delhi and then taken to Saudi, the official said. The ministry had to seek permission for NAS to fly the pilgrims after domestic carriers,including Air India,refused to ferry pilgrims from Patna and Srinagar to Delhi. The airlines said that the Haj coincided with the peak holiday season and they had no spare capacity to deploy on these routes. Last year,domestic carriers had pitched in, the official said. So,for the second year in a row,foreign carriers Saudi Airlines and NAS Air the two won a limited global tender by bidding the lowest $1,200 per passenger; Air India had quoted almost $ 2,000 a passenger - have been tasked to fly the pilgrims. NAS Air would deploy a narrow-body plane for Patna and Srinagar as both the airports do not support wide-bodied planes. The ministry has also asked the air safety regulator to consider these special chartered Haj flights at par with scheduled passenger flights to minimise inconvenience at the airports. Meanwhile,the individual pilgrim contribution for this years Haj expenses is likely to be increased.The ministry has sought the Cabinets approval to hike it to Rs 20,000 from Rs 16,000 last year,in line with its policy of narrowing the subsidy gap. Nearly 1.75 lakh pilgrims are scheduled to perform the Haj this year,1.25 lakh of these will be availing the subsidy through the Haj Committee of India.
